The Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast

What is your end game in your parenting?  Is it like us, and to have strong, healthy contributing adults? Join us in this week's episode as we talk about losing our kid and our best friend's kid in Europe and how that all relates to being amazing parents and what three other things to do at this job we call parenting. music brought to you by www.bensound.com   The post 4 Pillars to Parenting appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Have you ever said, or hear it said, "I am just not feeling very creative." ? In this week's podcast episode, we explore what the possibility that creative is not a state of being but rather a skill that must be practiced every day. music brought to you by www.bensound.com The post The Skill of Creating appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Do you suddenly have a child who previously loved to read and has become reluctant?  Are you struggling with how to get your kiddo to read on their own successfully? In this episode, Nicole describes the 5 steps to take when you find yourself struggling to encourage your child out of being a reluctant reader.   music brought to you by www.bensound.com The post 5 Steps to Helping Your Child Out of the Reluctant Reader Stage appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

What are colleges looking for when your child enters?  Concerned if your child has what it takes? Standford recently put out a list of 8 skills they want your child to have before darkening their doorsteps, you might be surprised at how unacademic these skills are. In this episode, Nicole reviews the 8 skills Standford is begging parents and schools to teach their children before they enter college as a baby adult at 18. music brought to you by www.bensound.com The post 8 Proper Skills to Adulting by 18 appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Everyone who does not want a bum for a kid finds a way to get them out of the basement and send them to a good school .  .  . right?! We are those idiots.  In this episode, find out why we made this choice, and the 12 intentions we think you should set when thinking about alternatives to the conveyor belt from high school to college. BONUS find out how you can receive 75% off our consulting rate. The post To College or Not to College? appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Parenting is tough.  We always want to rescue but is neglect more beneficial? In this episode Nicole discusses the Teaching Your Child's 4 pillars of parenting.  Neglect being one of the most important pillars but also one of the most controversial. The post Rescue or Neglect appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Learn the essential skills necessary to get past difficulties in learning. In this episode, Nicole talks about several specific methods for helping your child get the most out of learning. The post What To Do If Your Child Doesn’t Get It appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Interview with Alaska Public School teacher - Elizabeth Morey In this TYC podcast original interview Nicole talks to Alaska public school teacher Elizabeth Morey. Homeschool parents often can’t help but compare themselves to their public school counterparts and it is refreshing to hear some progressive teaching ideas and practices coming from the public school sector. Elizabeth is a good family friend and passionate about teaching. We are grateful to bring her insight to the TYC podcast. Podcast Show Notes: To get things started Elizabeth explains that she started teaching because she needed a job but she quickly fell in love with teaching and is concerned that sometimes she likes it a little too much. Her biggest passion in teaching is seeing kids develop a love for reading and really taking off with their reading. The beginning of the interview describes in broad detail a regular school day and quickly moves into to the planning of teaching. One of the most important things to do early on in the school year is to develop overarching theme for the year. This absolutely gets easier as you develop experience. The year is also broken down into quarters for easier review and to allow Elizabeth to hit major subjects. Elizabeth teaches 2nd grade and has recognized this as the year that students really take off. As an example it is not uncommon for 2nd graders triple their reading rate. The beginning of the year is always an interesting time and there is a certain feeling out and familiarization time between teachers and students. Respect does not come automatically and this is the time when it is build. This beginning of the year time is also the perfect time to lay down some expectations, rules, and how to behave. RTI – Response to Intervention – This is a program used to identify and focus on teaching goals for individual students. Apply a goal based program and continue to monitor progress for kids that may need additional help. Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive Skills We were glad to hear Bloom’s Taxonomy referenced. We have talked a lot about the taxonomy of learning and are happy to see that it is heavily utilized in public school. Evaluation Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge When talking about kids of different levels in the same classroom it important to note that kids that are ahead don’t necessarily want to be set apart from the class. As I am sure you can imagine this can lead to a variety of frustrating dynamics in a large classroom. Elizabeth solves some of these issues by assigning work that is similar in subject but on a different level of Bloom’s taxonomy to kids of different levels. This allows kids to continue to work in the same groups and doesn't exclude and segregate kids. Aims web (words per minute fluency test) – MAP assessment – Measurements of academic progress Elizabeth uses the modeling approach to develop understanding calling it the Triple teaching approach. I do, we do, you do. Keep in mind that the triple teaching approach needs to be adapted to different age levels and levels of development. For example older grades need more “you do” and more collaborative work. “Kids can’t learn everything on their own.” ~Elizabeth Morey~ This is where the I do and we do comes into play. Even much of the modern research from Sugatra Mitra and others shows that kids involved in self directed learning need some type of direction. This direction can be as subtle as Sugatras’s granny cloud which simply asks kids to show more, or explain it a little more, etc. Reading Magic – Mem Fox – One of the most impactful books on reading that Elizabeth has ever read. Elizabeth states that everything in life will require reading and TYC could not agree more. Developing a love of reading is important but more importantly the futu...

We spent at least 6 months in active preparation mode.  We moved out of our house.  We put everything in storage.  We got all of our bank cards shut down days before departure.  We went on a wild goose chase for crispy new $1 bills.  We forgot to book a hotel.  We did a few things right and we royally screwed up most everything else.  But here we are and we will never forget the getting ready or the adventures to follow. Give a listen to the podcast and maybe we will be able to help you avoid some of the same mistakes we made.  Or you can just listen for a good laugh. The post How the Heck Did We Get Ready For Thailand appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Hello Folks!!! Here is another episode documenting our adventures in Thailand. It can be described as the best of times and the worst of times. Travel always has a way of changing the way we look at the world and it also has the potential to change the way your kids look at the world for the rest of their life. Give it a listen and shoot us any questions you have about schooling on the road. The post First Impressions of Thailand appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Check out the latest TYC Podcast - It has been a long time coming but it will leave you ready to hit the road. What Neat Adventures Have You Guys Done? This is a fun question!  We have been able to do a couple of fun things, & are planning a few more.  Here are some pictures from some adventures: Elephant Interactions: This is the baby elephant we got to feed bananas he is giving me a kiss (complete with kissing sounds!) here with his very strong, wet ended trunk.  This was such an amazing interaction for all of us. It was very difficult to leave him behind (you know he that he is a boy because of the tusks) Katharine was enthralled with his big, kind eyes.  Austin was enamored with the dexterity of his feet & trunk.  Nathan was smitten with his childish, loving ways.  & for me, elephants have always been my favorite mammal…this was a heart filling treat to be next to them all day, up close & personal, to feel their likes & dislikes (one female was very perturbed by the cows, while Katharine & I were riding her!) Click here to see our Elephant Interactions video This is not at all like riding a horse!!!!  At one point we were starting to go down a hill. Napakhun, minding her own business, started smelling out this pile of food left out for the cows & naturally she wants to go that way… her owner kept telling her no, but she was insistent…I was all for whatever Napakhun wanted while my baby & I are on her back!  Before we rode the elephants we were taught a lot about their body language.  Tail, ears, head moving = happy elephant.   Ears flat, tail down = not happy.  During her desire to eat the cow food, HER EARS WERE FLAT AGAINST MY LEGS!  Just seconds before the arguing between owner & Napakhun ensued they were flapping. I forced a smile & tried desperately to relax my body language, hoping she’d not pick up on my growing concern. In the end, Napakhun got 5 trunk fulls of cow food.   Pineapple Plantation & Mountainous Jungle Trek: Here we are at a pineapple plantation.  The trees behind us are a rubber tree plantation.  There is a real problem with wild elephants gorging themselves on pineapple plants.  It takes 6-8 months to grow them & a small elephant can consume up to & over 100 kilos a day!   I had no idea Pineapples took so long to grow.   We went on a trek up into the mountainous jungles of southern Thailand…no easy path, but it was an amazing adventure where we were able to learn about local flora & fauna.  There are fish in these rivers that the Thai do not eat because they taste very bad, but they swim upstream, just like the salmon.  These fish are not trying to spawn, but are in search of food.  Their nickname is : "the kissing fish”  they try to suck on fingers & toes in search of food.  Really unnerving when you first enter the cool water for a swim. AWWWW the cute venomous viper!  Just hanging out on the ”trail” (used lightly), looking like a harmless vine.  You can tell he is venomous because he has a brown tipped tail.  Apparently, they like to follow a short ways…as this one did me, they move very slowly because they have nothing to fear… I, however, moved like lightning…because I do fear!  We were told that these guys are not deadly, they feel like 3x worse than a bee sting.  (not a comfort to me!)   Our teacher/guide told us not to worry about the cobras (these can kill you in >30minutes w/o antidote) while with a Thai…because the cobras are afraid of the Thai’s…they always catch cobras for soup.  (again, not a comfort!) Finally made it to this waterfall (taken from up high so the proportional view is off).  The final 10th waterfall of this river takes 2 days to get to, we stopped at the 4th, which took ½ the day. Click here to see video on our jungle trek   Kiteboarding: Nathan got to check off his bucket list & become a card carrying kite surfer.  This means at most locations worldwide,

The Teaching Your Child Podcast – 08 – Show Notes Today we discuss a common homeschool Soapbox…. We open the box on label and talk about why we think labels need to go.  This episode is a little bit more free form and idea based.  Hope you enjoy. Figure out what your child’s learning style is and how you can teach to this learning style. Start with the fun work and work down to the less fun aspects of homeschool. Re-examine your own questioning if you are not getting the answers you want from your student or you are worried about your child’s level of engagement and enthusiasm. Gifted and talented Children that appear to be great students may have figured out how to work the school system and may eventually become apathetic and burned out. What we want is to develop lifelong learners that are not afraid to take risks or fail. Developing a positive supportive environment for learning will promote confidence in your students. Don’t be afraid to change the game when what you are doing is not working.  Your kids are changing quickly and you need to adapt your teaching to their development. The post The Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast – 08 appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

The Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast – 07 – Show Notes This show is all about different ways to teach math.  Math can be fun if you approach it from some different perspectives.  Here are some ideas. Carpentry – We used an immense amount of math in a home restoration and were continually surprised by how much math we used.  This was a great opportunity to show our kids where math actually applied to the real world. Cooking – The list of potential math used in cooking and baking is endless and can even branch into science and gastronomy.  The best part…. You get to eat your math problem. Photography – You can work ratios, timing, film speed, pixels, etc.  Building a pinhole camera can turn this into a carpentry project as well. Art– Math and art share more similarities than many people realize and much favorable art has been found to be mathematically proportional. Ideas mentioned : Golden ratio, fractals, proportion, symmetry Weapons Study – This was based on a class that Nicole taught for our Homeschool co-op.  They found that analysis of historical and modern weapons utilized a great degree of math.  It also goes without saying…. The kids thought this class was absolutely awesome. The post The Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast – 07 appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast – 06 - Show Notes This episode is full of information about cognitive skills, learning, improving your ability to ask questions.  Hope you get as much from this episode as we did. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Skills Knowledge– Most basic level of comprehension. Examples of words that personify this level of understanding - Define, Test, Identify, Describe, Match, Locate, Name, Tell, Remember Comprehension– One step beyond basic knowledge but still not the kind of understanding we are after. More examples - Explain, Summarize, Interpret, Rewrite, Convert, Example, Draw, Own words Application– This is where things start to get interesting. More examples still - Show, Apply, Write, Classify, Operate, Construct, Demonstrate Analysis– This is where real understanding starts to take hold.  Memory retention at this level skyrockets and opinions are formed about the ideas. Compare, Contrast, Dissect, Deduct, Infer, Analyze, Categorize Synthesis– At this level analysis mixes with creativity and new ideas are born. Create, Suppose, Design, Compose, Combine, Rearrange, What if Evaluate– This is the top tier of cognitive ability where ideas can be examined from many different perspectives.  This is where you want to strive to take your kid’s education as well as your own level of understanding. Judge, Appraise, Debate, Criticize, Support, Conclude, Justify Common questioning errors: Habitually repeating question or the students responses Asking too many questions at once Asking a question and answering it yourself Asking only the brightest and most likeable students Asking the same types of questions Asking questions in a threatening manner Not giving students a chance to think Not correcting wrong answers Ignoring answers Failing to see the implications of answers Failing to build on answers Improving your questioning ability: Increasing the amount of time you wait for an answer after asking a question offers these benefits: Length of student response increases Student initiated and appropriate responses increases Student failure to respond reduced Student confidence in responding increases Student speculative responses increase Student-to-student interaction increases while teacher focused instruction decreases Student evidence to support statements increases Number of student questions increases Participation of student identified as a slow learner increases Variety of student responses increases. There are two types of wait time associated with a question: prior to the answer and then after the answer.  Increase both for wait times for maximum benefit.     The post The Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast – 06 appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

The Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast Show Notes – 05 Some great alternatives to the traditional book report.  As educators we all want to see our kids develop excellent reading comprehension.  These seven strategies can help build reading ability while having fun. Start a book club – This can be done with friends, family or a co-op.  Get the book club together to have a discussion.   Add ice cream and a special drink to make it fun.  And, did I mention, go out of your way to make this fun. Exercise your Drama Muscles – Act out some scenes from a book or do a dramatic reading.  Record the whole thing for laughs and review. Be a Blogger – Have your homeschooler start a book review blog.  Get them to go deep and add analysis, criticisms or supporting arguments.  Again, MAKE it FUN.  A theme can go a long way in adding a fun element so get creative. Explore!!!! – Use the book as a starting point for finding things to explore.  Visit areas where books took place, try things that the characters did or make things that the characters used. Get Artistic – Use the book as inspiration for pictures, sculptures or even comic books. Make Your Kids Day – Let them watch the movie about the book or a program that deals with the subject of the book.        That Ending Sucked – Rewrite the ending, choose your own adventure or kill the character that you didn’t like.  This can be a lot of fun and lead to some pretty amusing stories and endings. Reading will open new doors and allow your kids to explore from anywhere in the world at any time they wish.  Help them develop a love of reading by trying some of these alternatives to the boring old book report. The post The Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast – 05 appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

The Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast – 04 : Show Notes It’s OK to Have an Off Day!!!! One of the best things we have found to do on off days is to toss it all to the wind and just do something fun to build relationships with your kids.  If your day is not working, STOP.  Homeschooling allows for flexibility, take advantage of this flexibility. Read a book to your kids, they will love it at any age, heck I still like to be read to. Mentions: Roald Dahl, Hardy Boys Play some games, puzzles, video games, board games, catch, or anything else that your kids will enjoy.  Just do something out of the norm that can break the cycle of an off day, once again this is a great opportunity to build relationships. Mentions: Wii, Lumosity Go Outside!!!  Need I say more? Watch a great documentary.  There are thousands of great documentaries just waiting to teach your kids something interesting.  Kids love watching TV make this compromise on an off day. Mentions: Netflix Get creative and go do some art work.  Get messy, experiment, color outside the lines and have some fun. Head to the kitchen and make something great that you can eat later.  Cake and ice cream are normally pretty popular on off days and they usually ensure smiles. You can have an off day and if used wisely you can even reap some fantastic benefits from your off days. The post The Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast – 04 appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Top 10 Reasons to Homeschool Podcast Show Notes!!!! The Biggest Benefit of All - You can stay up late, sleep late and stay in your pajamas all day if you want. Know Thy Child - We get to know our kids and spend lots of time with them.  Your kids will be grown before you know it and ready to move out.  Treasure the time you have with your children and don’t sweat the small stuff. Do What They Want - You can tailor educational material to what your kids want to learn and play off of their interests. Mix it UP - You can mix up the schedule to keep things interesting and be flexible. Good Eats - You have the opportunity to fuel your kids with healthy nutritional food and promote a healthy lifestyle. Do Something Worthwhile - There are many opportunities for extracurricular activities that you have the opportunity to take advantage of. Influence Thy Kid - You have greater control over the influences that touch your children and you get to know your kids friends. Nomadism or Just a Vacation - You have more opportunity to travel and are not stuck to the traditional holiday travel periods. Use Life - You have the opportunity to use life as your primary curriculum and give your kids an extremely well-rounded education.  Not to mention helping your kids build marketable real world skills that will serve them well in their life. No Testing!!! - Depending on where you live you may not have any required standardized state testing.  Standardized testing makes our skin crawl and not having to partake gives us a huge degree of freedom to teach the information we believe is important. BONUS : We get to learn everything again!!!!  It is actually a ton of fun to stay a chapter ahead of our kids and learn all of the same information.  The added benefit of all of this is that it keeps our brains working and keeps us young. Hope you enjoyed!!!  I know we did.  Until next time….. The post TYC Homeschool Podcast Episode – 03 The top 10 reasons to homeschool appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

In this episode of the Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast we discuss the different types of learning styles and reveal some strategies for teaching to each learning style.  We touch on some basic brain theory and the benefits of physical activity on learning. Learning Styles Discussed: Visual Auditory Tactile Kinesthetic Teaching Strategies Discussed: Utilizing physical activity to promote learning Increasing the number of senses used learning Ball toss for promoting activity and learning Bear crawls Playing music Brain Theory Discussed: Remylation of the brain Crossing the midline Increasing theta waves Stimulation of the dentate gyrus portion of the brain (correction alert: mispronounced dentate for denate) Maximizing brain region stimulation for maximum learning   Nicole is a very visual learner as you'll hear her say many times "If you'll picture . . ."    The post The Teaching Your Child Homeschool Podcast – 02 appeared first on Teaching Your Child.

Hello All!!! I am proud to announce that Nicole and I have cobbled together our first podcast.  We have nothing to do but improve but to say the least I am quite happy with our first go around. In the episode: We mainly introduce the Teaching Your Child Podcast and give some history of our business, how we came to be involved in homeschooling and what you can expect in the future from the TYC Podcast. We already have more recorded so this is just a start.  We are both looking forward to sharing what we have learned over the years and getting into the details of what you can do to get the most out of your Homeschooling adventure. The post The Teaching Your Child Podcast 001 : All About TYC and Great Homeschooling Information appeared first on Teaching Your Child.